Businesses cringe at loss of Saturday mail delivery

Making cuts to save billions, snail mail will no longer be coming to your house on Saturdays.

A five-day First Class mail delivery schedule has been in the works for the last few years. Postal Service executives say it will save $2 billion a year.

Packages, mail-order prescriptions and Express Mail will still be delivered on Saturdays. The plan will take effect the week of Aug. 5.

Under the new plan, mail will be delivered to homes and businesses Monday through Friday, but packages will continue to be delivered on Saturdays.

Local post offices will continue to operate as they always have on Saturdays, including delivery to P.O. boxes.

Local businesses expect the change could have an impact on business. They don't foresee any major issues but say they're prepared to make adjustments to handle the new delivery schedule.

Trenton Grand is a bankruptcy lawyer in New Orleans. He said although his office isn't open on Saturday, his clients rely on Saturday mail delivery to get paperwork processed on time.

"A lot of our clients are sending documents to the court or sending payments to the court, and not having that extra day of delivery could mean the difference between whether their case gets dismissed or if their case gets confirmed," Grand said.

He added Saturday mail delivery is a convenience many people have gotten accustomed to, but without it, his clients will have to plan on sending mail earlier.

"People have come to rely on being able to mail stuff on Saturdays for such a long time," Grand said, "It's going to take a long time for a lot of people to get used to."

Samantha Barnes is a working mom who does graphic design and web development for a New Orleans nonprofit that benefits the design industry.

She's not expecting the loss of Saturday delivery will be a huge lose to the nonprofit.

"I understand why they're having to do it, to cut funds and whatnot. With the budget crisis, I think it will benefit somewhat," Barnes said.

Although, she said waiting an extra day for certain mail will have her rearranging her work-flow schedule.

"I do billing on Monday, so typically a lot of the payments I receive arrive sometime on the weekend. Then, Monday I usually visit the banks to deposit them," she explained. "It would be a little bit difficult, so I would have to change that plan a little bit."

It's a minor hassle that she said she'll have time to adjust to.

Hallmark is one company that's fighting to keep Saturday mail delivery. The greeting card company has spent $240,000 lobbying on postal and tax issues. Executives have said eliminating Saturday mail delivery would drive down the volume of mail and revenue for the Postal Service.

Postal Service officials say they're making this announcement six months in advance to give residential and business customers time to adjust.

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